Dawanda review 2017

What is Dawanda?

Dawanda is a handmade marketplace that launched in Germany in 2006. They went international is 2012, but have primarily focused on the European market. Their platform can be browsed in English, German, Polish, French, Spanish, Dutch and Italian. For best results, sellers need to list their products in multiple languages too.

Many people have avoided Dawanda due to it's European focus, but if you're looking to expand your sales by selling in new markets, then you should strongly consider selling here. Dawanda is by far the biggest handmade marketplace in Europe – even bigger than Etsy is in this region.

Dawanda review scores

Total score: 32/50

Dawanda review

This review is written for those wanting an alternative to selling on Etsy. So, I'll be reviewing Dawanda based on the top 5 reasons people are looking for an Etsy alternative:

1. Competitiveness – Do your products have a chance of standing out from the crowd?

2. Exposure – Is there a good chance of increasing your traffic and getting more exposure?

3. Fees – How much does it cost? Is the pricing simple and predictable? More than that, are the fees fair for what's on offer?

4. Flexibility – How professional does it look, and how flexible is it to change?

5. Handmade ethos – Are they strictly for handmade, or can you sell anything there? Will you be competing against manufacturers of mass produced goods, that can easily beat you on price?

I'll give each of these elements a score out of 10, to arrive at a total score out of 50. I'll then use this score to arrive at the top 10 Etsy alternatives.

Competitiveness

Dawanda is a very large marketplace, with over 320,000 sellers who've listed more than 5.3 Million products. 😲

It's definitely very competitive, especially if you're not based in Europe. Most of Dawanda's buyers are from Europe and therefore may be skewed towards purchasing local products to save on shipping costs.

Score: 2/10

Exposure

Dawanda has a huge amount of traffic. That's the main reason for them being included in the top 10 Etsy alternatives list. According to Dawanda there are 20 million visitors and 200 million page views a month! So, even if you're not from Europe, there's still a great chance to get some exposure by having your products listed on Dawanda.

Here's some contrasting opinions from other handmade sellers for you to consider:

Last time I sold there I listed in German. I used an online translator and the help of a good friend. I made my listing very, very basic and still got a lot of sales – Former Etsy seller

I've seriously considered DaWanda in the past, however: the search there is now automatically set to region and most DaWanda buyers are from Germany, so unless you are a German seller, you start off with a serious disadvantage (even if you are capable of speaking German and offering German translations).
If you're not from the EU, your disadvantage becomes even bigger since (SEPA) bank transfer is the most popular choice for payments there – Femchan, from Etsy's forums

Score: 7/10

Fees

Dawanda's fee structure has changed as of January 16, 2017.

According to Dawanda:

The goal of the change is to make our pricing model more transparent, more fair and balanced for all sellers, from big ones to small ones, as well as enabling sellers to become equally successful on DaWanda, regardless of where they sell from.

There were previously no listing fees on Dawanda, however they have now introduced a listing fee (€0.10 - €0.30*) that is dependent on your listing price:

It's quite high for handmade, but certainly more acceptable than north of 10%, which some of our top 10 Etsy alternatives are charging.

Score: 7/10

Flexibility

Dawanda's storefront looks nice. Everything is well laid out and it's easy to navigate and find what you're looking for.

Apart from the store's banner and the short blurb at the top, there's not a lot of flexibility to customize it. There is a seller "Profile" page, but you can only add some extra text there about yourself. Would like to see the ability to add some images to make your branding come through even more.

Overall though, it's a really nice storefront and definitely professional enough that you'd be proud to have your products there.

Score: 6/10

Handmade ethos

Dawanda is one of the few real handmade marketplaces on our top 10 Etsy alternative list. So, I have no choice other than to give this one a perfect score! 🎉

Score: 10/10

In conclusion, Dawanda is an absolute must if you're based in Europe, and you should definitely explore it if you're wanting to get your products in front of an international audience.